Kate Gosselin, 33, of Pittsburgh, always knew she wanted to have kids — two, maybe three would be great. So after giving birth to beautiful twin girls, she (and husband Jon) decided to go for one more. But to everyone's surprise, Kate ended up delivering six babies! REDBOOK talked holiday fun with the multiples-supermom star of TLC's Jon & Kate Plus 8 and coauthor — with Jon — of the new book Multiple Blessings.

What is Christmas like in your house?

Christmas should be the most memorable day of the year, so there are no rules. The kids can eat whatever they want all day. Honestly? I'm really stressed the whole time, but I pretend it's fun!

How do you buy gifts for eight kids?

To avoid chaos, I get each of them one gift that no one else got, and then a bunch of little filler things. I also print out their names and put them on the floor so they each have a special spot to sit and open presents and they don't all cage me in at the tree!

We enforce a strict bedtime for the kids, between 8 and 8:30, and Jon and I clean up and do chores and usually stay up until midnight, which gives us a couple of hours to hang out and review the day. We watch TV together and make it fun. It's very refreshing, because during the day we can't hear a sentence each other says.

The twins are now 8. Are they helping out?

Yes! Recently, the twins woke up in the morning and saw that Jon and I were really tired, so they put bibs on the kids and fed them cereal. Jon looked at me and said, "Ooh, this is getting good!"

How did you get through rough times, like when Jon was let go from his job while you were pregnant with the sextuplets?

I didn't know if I was going to be able to pay my mortgage or electricity bill. I would get really down and angry and think, We had two kids and two jobs; things were good. But you just have to hang on and trust in God. It took a long time, but our situation turned around. And now whenever I am in a hard situation, I literally stop myself and say, "You have a roof over your head and food on the table, and your kids and family are healthy, and there was a time when you weren't even sure you would have that." I feel so blessed that God chose us for this journey.